Wigan Athletic’s hopes of pulling off another great escape act to preserve their Premier League status suffered a huge blow on Tuesday when they lost 3-2 at home to League Cup winners Swansea City.
Wigan — who play Manchester City in the FA Cup final on Saturday — only had themselves to blame as they twice let Swansea equalize and handed the visitors, who were winning their first game in nine, their third on a plate.
The defeat leaves Wigan — whose manager Roberto Martinez made his name managing Swansea — third from bottom, three points adrift of Newcastle United, Sunderland and Norwich City with two games remaining.
Photo: Reuters
Martinez, though, while admitting they had let an opportunity slip, insisted that they could win their final two games.
“We have the character and we will fight for every point, we will bounce back and take advantage of the last two games,” the 39-year-old Spaniard said. “The many injuries we have at the back showed tonight, we played sloppy balls and made bad decisions, but you can see the effort of the players. But sometimes we made it difficult for us to be ourselves.”
Wigan had the better of the first half hour against a Swansea side shorn of their leading scorer Michu, who was out injured.
However, despite dominating their only clear-cut chance fell to Ivorian striker Arouna Kone, whose shot came back off the legs of Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm.
Swansea’s best effort came from a free-kick inside the Wigan penalty area — after Joel Robles picked up a back-pass by Gary Caldwell — but from close range centerback Ashley Williams blasted it high over the bar.
Wigan’s Scottish star Shaun Maloney found the target in the 41st minute with a trademark free-kick, but unfortunately for him it was straight into the arms of Vorm.
However, Vorm could do nothing right on halftime when Honduran Roger Espinoza — who had come into the side for the injured Jean Beausejour — produced a superb volley for his first goal for the club.
Swansea came out with a bit more ambition in the second half and mounted some early pressure, and it paid off in the 50th minute.
Wayne Routledge put a superb ball into the area finding Angel Rangel and the Spanish player, one of the few remaining players at Swansea from the Martinez days, volleyed it home brilliantly, although he kept his celebrations muted out of respect for his former boss.
It took just three minutes for Wigan to regain the lead with a delightful goal, Caldwell striding forward and producing a superb pass for the onrushing James McCarthy, who shot from the edge of the area and beat the diving Vorm.
It should have been 3-1 three minutes later when Kone played a superb ball into the penalty area, but James McArthur failed to connect.
That looked ever more costly as Caldwell passed sloppily to Routledge and the ball eventually fell to Itay Schechter, whose shot took a deflection off Emerson Boyce and flew past Robles for his first goal for the club.
Wigan were denied retaking the lead for a third time in the 68th minute when Vorm produced a superb save to tip over Caldwell’s header, which was going toward the top corner.
Yet again, though, Wigan’s Achilles heel all season, their defending, contributed to the killer goal.
Even with seven players in their own box they failed to clear the ball, and the farcical situation was summed up when McArthur and Maloney went for the same ball, with Maloney’s weak chest down falling to Dwight Tiendali.
The Suriname-born former Netherlands under-21 international’s tame shot bounced before entering the net and with it probably went Wigan’s Premier League status.
Any rhythm the hosts could get back into their play came to a halt when Vorm and Ben Davies required medical attention after a clash of heads, with the Dutch goalkeeper then being taken off on a stretcher.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite